


The Nightingale

by OurMadonnaWhoreComplex



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: But it is a conflict in the ship, But she's 17, F/F, F/M, Lots of OCs - Freeform, Multi, Next-Gen, Original Villains, Slow Burn, So it's not that creepy, inspired by batman beyond, next gen romeo and juliet romance, no way to make this sound original, okay so I tagged underage, the dc universe is my sandbox
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-02
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-09-21 12:18:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9548726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OurMadonnaWhoreComplex/pseuds/OurMadonnaWhoreComplex
Summary: Lucy, Harley Quinn's daughter by the Joker, becomes the new sidekick of Gotham's new Batman: Damian Wayne. A slow burn Romeo and Juliet story with second generation Batman characters. There is plenty of crime fighting, and maybe more than one existential crisis to be had. These are the adventures of Batman, and the Nightingale.





	1. When I Was Younger

Lucy’s favorite person was her Aunt Harley. She had no doubt that there was no one prettier or funnier. 

“Why are the cars wearing tutus?” She grinned earnestly at Lucy while stroking her hair. They were sitting in the dirty floor of the living room in front of an old TV set. The floor was littered with the toys Lucy kept at her Aunt Harley’s house.

“So they can feel pretty while their dancing. Duh. I thought you would know that!” Lucy responded as if it was the most obvious thing. She twirled the red hummer in the air, creating a magnificent arc as she lowered it back to the ground to crash into a shiny green Cadillac. 

“I don’t know everything.”

“Of course you do! Plus, I’ve told you before!” 

“Oh right. And the baby doll’s name is?”

“You know that!” 

“Well remind me, I love your stories.” Harley said with a slight smile. Lucy loved that about Harley, she was almost always smiling, and she listened to every single thing she said, and never thought any of it was weird.

Lucy grabbed the doll from beside the cradle where a yellow truck was sleeping soundly under a Sleeping Beauty baby blanket. The doll was more scary than endearing with its partially melted face and chewed arm.

“This is Baby Bottle Rocket!” Lucy said with intense pride as she handed Harley the doll “He’s like Superman! He’s an alien from another planet with super powers and stuff. He got in an accident where his firework super powers back fired and he hurt his own face! But he’s like Superman, so he’s okay. OH! And his arm he got from fighting off Cerberus at the gates of Hell!”

“Wow, impressive, I’m sure he’d get along with the Justice League.” 

“NUH-UH! He works outside the law!” Lucy said dramatically squinting and deepening her voice to further a point.

On the television set goofy, loud laughter was heard and Lucy looked up to see the smiling face of a clown. The large red smile, the white face, the abnormal laugh, and dark joyful eyes disturbed her on an instinctive level. She let out a squeal and took cover in the cushions of the couch. “Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry” Lucy thought in her head as she pressed herself into the familiar scratchy fabric of the old, smelly couch. 

“Lucy, sweetie, you know it’s just a clown.” Harley said softly running over to the girl and petting her back soothingly.

“Clowns are scary!”

“They’re supposed to make you happy and laugh. Sometimes people even like them, because they’re scary.”

“Who decided that? That’s stupid!”

“People like to laugh. People like to be scared even more. It’s human nature. Human nature is like…just how people act.”  
Lucy turned to Harley, tiny tears in her eyes.

“How do you know that?”

“They told me in school silly! They don’t call me a doctor for nothing!” Harley winked at the small girl.

“Nobody calls you a doctor.” Lucy replied with a pout. 

“Well…they did a long time ago.” Harley said softly to the point Lucy had to strain to hear. She was still smiling, but there was something off about it. Tears rolled down Lucy’s face.

“Do you like clowns?” Lucy asked naively. Maybe if Harley didn’t like clowns either she wouldn’t feel so silly for being scared of them. And if Harley liked them, then that meant maybe they weren’t that scary. After all in Kindergarten the other kids talked for ages about how cool they were when the circus was in town.

There was something unspeakably sad in Aunt Harley eyes as she pet Lucy’s hair. 

“I love them.”

A large wild puppy dog and Pam came into the small apartment with a loud door slam. The sound of gun shots followed, and Lucy immediately put her hands over her ears while Pam swore loudly.

“You live in shit hole, Harley. Seriously, your sister would be pissed if she knew exactly where you lived.” Pam said brusquely. People outside were yelling and a woman was screaming shrilly. The large dog immediately ran to Lucy, licking her face and almost standing on top of the girl. Lucy let out a squeal and giggled, and very well couldn’t be afraid then. 

“Ivy…”Harley said unhappily looking from Lucy to Pam.

“Yeah, sorry, though I think Lucy knows by this point not to repeat anything that comes out of my mouth, right girlie?” Pam smirked at Lucy. While Lucy was sure that Harley was the prettiest woman in the world, Pam was a close second, even if her skin was a funny color. Aunt Laura did tell her not to judge based on skin color, and it was a silly thing to care about anyway. Especially when Pam always smelled like flowers and had hair like a fire truck and Lucy knew for a fact that was pretty awesome.

“Right, you have a potty mouth! Never say any of those damn words.”

“Lucy!” Harley gasped.

Lucy laughed hysterically, with what her Aunt Laura called her trademark mischief smile. It was a full face one that stretched from ear to ear, creating little dimples, and lit up her eyes. Pam frowned slightly as Harley simply shook her head.

“Sorry Aunt Harley! I just wanted to see the look on your face!” she exclaimed as she squeezed her purple bear in the throes of her laughing fit. The dog, excited by Lucy’s laughter, tried to jump on top of her, making her laugh only harder. It hurt her sides, and suddenly she didn’t feel so much like laughing. The yelling outside got louder and there was door slamming and another gun shot. Her laughter turned into sobbing and she hugged her bear even more tightly. 

Harley eyes looked dangerous suddenly as she stood up and went to the back room.

“Harley…” Pam said cautiously.

“This will only take a moment.” Harley said cheerfully as she quickly walked out the front door with a large paddle in her hands and the wild dog joining her with a vicious growl, yapping loudly. 

“SHUT THE FUCK UP OR I’M GOING TO FUCKING MAKE YOU.” Lucy heard Harley. She went to look out the window, when Pam quickly grabbed her.

“Come on dear, help me water the plants.”

“They’re pretty much dead.” Lucy responded stubbornly and tried to pull away. When she first got to the apartment she had run to check them only to see them very droopy and sad. Harley told her she lacked Lucy’s magic touch with them.

“I don’t believe that. They just need some time and attention.” Pam insisted trying to pull a reluctant Lucy in the direction of the kitchen.

“See these flowers are fine; just water them a little bit.” Pam continued handing her a small watering pale. The pink flowers were brown at the tips of the petals and the leaves were all yellow and brown. 

Lucy squinted at Pam suspiciously.

“I’m not dumb, it’s going to take more than a little water.”

Pam simply put her hand on her hip and gave Lucy a look.

“Oh, Lucy, you doubting you’re green thumb? You know the plants can hear you when you talk like that. You can’t just give up on them. They need encouragement! They need to believe that you believe they’ll get better.”

Lucy let out a heavy sigh and began to tilt her tiny pink water pail over the dry soil of the plant. The instant the water touched the dirt the plant came to life with the leaves and stem turning proud emerald green and the petals becoming the brightest shade of pink Lucy had ever seen. It even stood taller with its petals outspread to the world. Lucy let out a squeak and stepped back looking at Pam with alarm in her eyes.

“I told you.” Pam winked with a smirk.

“DID YOU SEE THAT?! Oh my gosh Pam that was so AWESOME!” Lucy exclaimed jumping up and down energetically, her long pig tails bouncing everywhere with her.

“I told you, you can’t doubt your power.” Pam laughed softly. It was weird; Lucy was never sure what to think of Pam. She was sure she was nice, since she was really pretty and was always sweet to her. But sometimes she would sound really mean on the phone or get an attitude with Aunt Harley. And even worse she heard her call her Aunt Laura and Uncle Scott a bitch more than once. She especially didn’t like Uncle Scott calling him a “pig in a uniform.” Lucy wasn’t really sure what that meant. 

Lucy reached out to gingerly touch the pink petal of the flower and frowned deeply.

“What’s the matter, Lucy? I thought you loved pink.”

“Oh, I love pink. It’s my favorite.” Lucy said, but softly and with not quite as much pep as she usually had when she talked about her favorite things.

“Then why are you frowning at the flower? You might hurt its feelings.” Pam insisted making Lucy even more confused as to what kind of person she was. Nobody bad could care this much about flowers.

“It’s just while they are very pretty and I love them very, very much they really aren’t my favorite.”

“Well what’s your favorite flower?” 

“Do you think we could have a rose bush?” Lucy asked earnestly yet shyly as she already knew the answer. “No, nowhere to put it, don’t be such a silly goose Lucy.” she thought to herself mimicking a grown up voice.

“Roses are really nice, but I don’t think Harley has any place for one in this tiny apartment. And I don’t think this neighborhood is the happiest environment for them. You wouldn’t want them to get scared like you do.” Pam persuaded the small girl. 

“I don’t get scared!” Lucy said indignantly, though a red blush at the bold faced lie was creeping across her cheeks. She crossed her arms and pouted, avoiding eye contact with her. 

“You wanna know a secret?” Pam said after a long pause.

“What?”

“We all get scared. Especially when we grow up, there’s just more things to be afraid of.”

“….that doesn’t sound very fun.”

“But there are more things to do for fun. We are adults after all.” Pam grinned, “And adults have the best fun.”

Lucy thought about that long and hard and knew that had to be true. The adult world held so many secrets, and that meant surprises, and surprises tended to be pretty fun. And if adults were the type of people to scare themselves for fun, then that meant being scared was really just another game. 

“You look like your mother when you think like that. You have such a serious, thoughtful face.” Pam said with proud affection only for eyes to widen immediately as she realized the flood gate she opened.

“Do I really? What about my dad? Was my mommy pretty? Aunt Laura says she wanted me, but life got in the way, what does that mean? Some of my classmates don’t have daddies but I have a daddy right?” Lucy began to babble energetically her whole body practically vibrating.

“Don’t worry about it so much, girlie. You got plenty of time to learn all about your parents. And until then you have plenty of people looking out for you and doing the important things for them.” Pam said crouching to look Lucy in the eye, “Including me and let me tell you another secret: nobody fucks with me. And that includes my girls.”  
Pam’s eyes were serious and a little dangerous. Even though she didn’t like to admit it she had seen the same look in her Aunt Harley’s eyes whenever it got too loud with the fighting and gun shots or Uncle Scott would grab her a little too rough. A shudder went up her spine and she realized that while Pam was one of the coolest people in the world to her, she was also really scary. And yet Lucy didn’t blink or look away, she just met the serious stare with her own. 

“Maybe I can just wait for some boy to bring me roses.” Lucy said with a mischievous smirk, finally breaking the stare to focus on watering some peace lilies that came to life as miraculously as her pink flowers had. She really did have a green thumb!

“I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one. Even roses can have their tricks.” Pam said, and Lucy was sure she was just talking in riddles now. Adult tended to do that a lot, and it was awfully annoying. 

Lucy looked back towards the window to see something large and black swoop down through the hole in the curtains. Curiosity and impulse overtook her and she bolted for the door, grabbing Baby Bottle Rocket for protection. She was closing the door behind her before she could even hear Pam protest.

“Seems like you cleaned things up here, Harley.” A stoic gravelly voice boomed from downstairs. It was soft and loud at the same time, and it kind of reminded Lucy of whenever Uncle Scott got mad at her except even calmer. 

Lucy looked down to see a tall, dark looming creature towering her Aunt Harley with several people napping between them. Well, not quite all of them looked like they were napping; some of them were sitting upright and moaning though it was too dark to really see why they were moaning. 

“I’m getting my exercise in! How else am I supposed to stay in shape?” Aunt Harley said with a casual laugh. 

“It’s called a gym membership, harlot.” 

An older boy dropped out of nowhere right beside Harley, though if he shocked Aunt Harley she certainly didn’t seem to act like it. Lucy on the other hand nearly jumped clean out of her skin. He was dressed in brighter colors than the dark, angry man. She ran down the steps silently as possible to get a closer look. The boy was pretty grown up with long lanky limbs starting to bulk out and he was almost the same height as Aunt Harley. He had a sneer on his face and arrogant posture that the dark man lacked.

“OH!” Lucy exclaimed loudly smacking herself in the forehead. She suddenly knew who these people were, she had seen clips on the TV before and Uncle Scott would talk about them with Aunt Laura a lot. 

“What the hell is with the kid?” The colorful boy asked incredulously looking at Harley.

“KID? SAYS THE BOY HERO!” Lucy snapped, deeply insulted by being underestimated by some big kid with an ego trip. She threw Baby Bottle Rocket hitting him square in the head.

“Ow! The fucking hell is your problem, brat?” The big kid rubbed his head, and his face twisted into comical shock that a tiny girl in blonde pigtails could actually cause any degree of pain. 

“You’re the one giving my aunt an attitude you dumbass.”

Harley quickly snatched up Lucy in her arms despite her protests and embarrassment. 

“Kids, am I right?” Harley laughed nervously. 

The dark man, Batman in the flesh, stared directly as Lucy. She fought the impulse to turn away, instead nervously waving at him while holding his gaze. His eyes widened in surprise for a brief second, and Lucy glanced all around trying to figure out what was so surprising. 

“Your niece looks a lot like you.” The Batman said softly, “She must have her father’s eyes though.”

Lucy felt a shudder go through her aunt.

“I wouldn’t know. I never met him.” Harley replied coldly as she set Lucy back down. 

Robin walked over to Lucy and bent down to hand her doll back. She could see how shiny and dark his hair was, and his eyes were the brightest blue she’d ever seen. She quickly avoided eye contact and crossed her arms with a pout.

“Here…uh, this…thing is yours.” Robin stumbled over his words his tone much humbler if awkward, “You really shouldn’t be out here.”

“I live here, I mean, I do sometimes. This is my Aunt’s place and I can be out here if I want.” Lucy responded as she took back the doll frowning a little bit at it, “Here, I think you need him more than I do. Maybe he can teach you to be a real hero.”

Lucy’s tone was thoughtful and civil, but she could help but giggle a little bit on the phrase “real hero”. 

“Oh really, smart ass?” Robin smirked with surprising good nature that made Lucy giggle even harder at her own cheekiness.

“Robin, we need to get moving. The police should be here soon, and Harley has done what was needed here.” The Batman ordered, Robin’s whole posture snapping from casual to military. 

“Be good.” Robin told her with a crooked smile before running off with the Batman into the night, the pair shooting and flying off with their grappling hooks in perfect synchronization. Lucy felt like she was in a dream as she watched the boy fly across the city with his silhouette framed by the moonlight. 

“Lucy, sweetie, I told you to stay inside.” Harley sighed looking from Lucy to the pile of napping people. 

“Yeah but I saw Batman out the window and I had to see!” Lucy exclaimed, “So is he like your friend or something?”

“Yeah, or something, now don’t tell Aunt Laura about this. We wouldn’t want her to worry would we, Lucy?” Harley said with a wink and a smile. Lucy nodded in wild agreement.

“Come on, we better get back inside with Pam. Come here Scruffy, come here girl.” Harley whistled loudly and the dog ran over gleefully. Lucy chose to ignore the dark red staining the edges of Scruffy’s mouth.

“Hey, Aunt Harley can I ask you a question?”

“What’s up?”

“What’s a harlot?”


	2. Smells Like Teen Spirit

“What happened to my sweet girl?” Aunt Laura sighed wistfully as she reached a wrinkled hand to pet Lucy’s hair. She ducked it and hurriedly took her place across from her at the table as she shoved a piece of toast in her mouth. 

“She’s the local freak at her high school and everything sucks, so fuck it.” She retorted, bits of toast flying from her mouth as she spoke. She was too sleepy and grumpy to humor her Aunt Laura, even though she knew she probably deserved better. She dodged her Aunt’s sad, tired eyes rather focusing on the condensation on her glass of orange juice like it was the most interesting thing she’d ever seen. 

“Language, young lady. You know the rule.” Uncle Scott said overlooking his newspaper to glare at her. He tapped the swear jar that sat at the middle of the table. Uncle Scott, on the other hand, could eat her dick as far as Lucy was concerned. 

“Where do you think I learned it, asshole? You don’t exactly have the cleanest mouth yourself. I guess you probably learned it from all those thugs and street trash right?” Lucy scowled as she took her chain billfold out of her pocket and flipped through it to grab a single. She wasn’t going to get another one for “asshole” though, because as far as she was concerned it wasn’t that bad of a word. She’d give Uncle Scott the fact she probably shouldn’t say fuck so brazenly. But again she was so damn tired, and the sun was too bright, and she wasn’t sure she could dread school anymore that she did. 

“I have spent my whole life with criminals, and I can’t say I have learned anything from them. And I try to control my language. The swear jar isn’t just for you. Believe it or not it’s not always about you.” Uncle Scott said emphasizing the word “criminals” like it was the most disgusting thing in the world. Just like the homosexuals and the terrorists. Lucy rolled her eyes as she could already feel a rant coming on. She could hardly stand listening to him talk some days, his tone was so fucking self-righteous.

“Please, like you spend any time with real criminals anyway. Your job is pretty much done for you these days by just one man. And he doesn’t even have some asshole kid in tights to put in jeopardy, because somehow a brat is better at the job than most of Gotham City Polity. What use is a police captain these days? Especially in these lame ass suburbs you dragged us out to. ” Lucy’s words flew out of her mouth before she could process what she was saying. 

“Lucy!” Aunt Laura admonished while looking at her with serious eyes and shaking her head. If her aunt could control her alone with her eyes, Lucy was sure she would. The forceful way she was looking at her got right under her skin. Her aunt’s eyes were like a threateningly firm grip on the arm of an ill-behaved child in a grocery store. 

“Oh, stop it Laura, whenever have you been able to control what I say? I barely do. You only try to control me, because he controls you.” Lucy snapped stabbing at her sausage savagely. She wasn’t sure what had gotten into her, but she too tired, too angry to pretend like they were a normal family having breakfast.

“THAT’S IT!” Uncle Scott stood up abruptly enough to unsettle the breakfast table and savagely threw the newspaper at Lucy. 

“I am sick and tired of your shit Lucy! We took you in when your piece of shit mother got knocked up by her terrorist, master criminal boyfriend, and decided she was too crazy to accept her own shit and take care of you. And this is how you treat us with your smart mouth and shitty grades? YOU ARE AN UNGRATEFUL BITCH YOU KNOW THAT? You think you know everything don-” His face was bright red and the vein in his neck was bulging. Lucy could feel herself shutting down for the oncoming verbal beating, but as quickly as he arose he fell into his chair coughing. Once he caught his breath he reached in his worn, bathrobe pocket for a pack of cigarettes.   
Lucy laughed coldly, her own rage bubbling to the surface.

“You can’t feel sorry for yourself when you keep smoking and eating everything in the whole damn house. You aren’t allowed to whine about how you’re dying, when you don’t do shit to help yourself. You’re ungrateful, that you have a family and life that you’ll flush away, because you can’t control yourself.” Lucy spat back as she stood up. She swallowed all the angry bitter words she still had in her, about how much she used to admire him all heroic in his dark blue uniform and shiny badge. Even if he always said nasty things about her Aunt Harley, she still loved him. Now she only saw him as the most pathetic, vile creature she’d ever seen. She wanted to tell him about how she’ll never forgive him for moving them out to this stupid suburb away from all her friends, and Aunt Harley - the only person whoever understood her, and then refusing to tell Harley where they were. It was because of Uncle Scott she hadn’t seen her in years. Suddenly, she felt hot tears stream down her face, and she swallowed the hardest words: she fucking hated him. There was a honking from out front, and Lucy wiped her tears hastily as she grabbed her book bag. 

“Hey, don’t walk away young lady! We’re having a discussion. Lucy I’m s-“ Uncle Scott started, but she had already stomped her way to the front door.

“I gotta go. Wouldn’t want to be late for class.” Lucy slipped out hurriedly, resisting the urge to slam the door. She slow slid to the ground sitting down with her back pressed against the door, and allowed herself to weep a little before she had to face Mina.

“Come on, bitch! I can see you!” Mina honked and called outside to Lucy from the window of the red Mustang. It was too old to be considered vogue and not nearly old enough to be vintage. It was still a Mustang though, which was sexy enough on its own, and Mina prided it as part of her identity ever since she turned sixteen last summer. 

“Sorry, I kind of hate my family these days…as sad as that is to admit.” Lucy sighed as she stepped into the car. She let out a deep breath trying to collect her nerves.

“Sweetie, every teen hates their parents. Normal ones anyway, I’d hate my parents too if they moved me from Gotham to Quaintsville, New Jersey. No, Daddy’s the one who gets his own penthouse in Gotham where he can snort cocaine and fuck pretty people who aren’t my mom in peace. Actually, scratch that, I kinda hate them already, and I admit I’m totally spoiled. No real reason to hate my parents compared to you. Anyway, I don’t think you don’t actually hate them. Not in your heart of hearts, or whatever. You always try to get along with your aunt at least. You’re just too sweet of a little ball of sunsh—oh my god, are you sure you’re okay?” Mina lifted her sunglasses and looked Lucy in the face for the first time since she got in the car. It was obvious she had been crying. Her eyeliner and mascara streamed down her face making an awful black mess.

“Oh, honey.” She said empathetically and leaned over to hug Lucy. Despite herself, the tears resurfaced and she sobbed into Mina’s shoulder. Mina smelled like her perfume, feminine and floral, and her long, manicured nails felt good stroking her hair. The screaming profanities of her uncle, his wretched cough, and her own cruel words were all echoing painfully in her head. Mina’s affection made her heart swell with little butterflies fluttering in her stomach, and to her distress it made the tears come harder.

“Lucy, it’s okay. It can’t be that bad is it? Why are you sobbing like this? Did he call you something shitty again?” Mina murmured softly as she pulled away to try to clean the black mess on Lucy’s face. 

“I don’t know. I guess it could have been worse. Him, I mean. But I was a total shit. Like I woke up in this ‘fuck off’ mood, and decided I wanted to make him feel as shitty as he makes me feel. Or at least I was too tired to really care about his feelings, and just said the first hurtful, awful thing my mind came up with. I look at him sometimes, and I barely recognize him from when I was a kid.” Lucy sighed as she pitifully wiped her nose with the back of her hand, and murmured a quiet thank you when Mina fished her Kleenex out of the glove compartment. 

“Lucy, you’re like seventeen. He’s the grown ass adult. Hasn’t he totally taken out his bad mood on you before? So what you were mean to him at breakfast? He’ll get over it. If you still feel that shitty later, you can always apologize.” Mina sighed as she pulled out of the drive way. They were going to be late at this rate if they wanted to stop for coffee and maybe steal a cigarette. 

“Right, and I’ll show how sorry I am by sneaking out to go to a party with you in Gotham tonight.” Lucy snorted. She got the feeling her Uncle Scott would just act like the incident didn’t even happen. Maybe if he really felt guilty he’d do something nice like offer to pick up dinner from her favorite Chinese place, but he rarely actually apologized for the things he said. He wasn’t going to change. And neither was she, at least not back into the dutiful child. 

“I’m not sure I’d call it a party…you’ll see. It’s uh, like a club.” Mina said her soft honey colored eyes darting nervously away from Lucy’s questioning ones. She fumbled through her coat pocket looking for her lighter and cigarettes. She wasn’t paying very close attention to the rode, she never did really, and Lucy had made the decision to just see Mina’s driving as a free adrenaline rush.

“A club? I don’t know Mina…I mean I know I agreed to be your partner in crime whenever you go to those big Gotham benefits your dad sometimes takes you to, but I’m not sure I would fit in with some sort of creepy, rich people club.” Lucy’s stomach did an uncomfortable flip thinking about being surrounded by debutantes in fancy designer clothes. She’d say something stupid, or something insulting, or something weird that made people give her that look. 

“Oh, fuck no, Lucy. It’s not one of those clubs. Please, you have to think I’m more fun than that. You’ll finally get to meet Heath.” Mina smiled brightly at her new beau’s name. Mina must really like this guy, Lucy reflected, because most of the time when she talked about the guy she was seeing she sounded annoyed. Then again, those guys were usually picked out by her parents. Two kids dating is a good excuse to get together for brunch where business transactions may or may not (but definitely should) take place. 

“Ah, I’ll meet the infamous Heath. So is he like your boyfriend yet? Do you like like each other? You guys going steady?” Lucy teased her friend.

“Yes, totally. He gave me his class ring and everything,” said Mina dryly shooting her friend a look out of the corner of her eye, “But I already explained this to you that we’re not like that. We’re not traditional. It’s not a monogamous thing, but yeah we’re getting pretty hot and heavy. He says I’m his favorite girl.” 

“Pfft, how serious can it be if he wants to fuck other girls? Sounds like he’s getting his cake and eating it too if you ask me.” Lucy scowled at the idea that her beautiful best friend was settling for being treated like anything less than the only girl he could want. 

“Lucy, come on, don’t be that way. Why are you assuming it’s only him who likes it being an open thing? Do you really think I’d let some guy just use me?” Mina retorted, with more fire than Lucy anticipated. She growled at her lighter which refused to light the cigarette dangling from her shiny, red lips. Really it was criminal how Mina’s make up always managed to be perfectly done.

“I just think you deserve the best, and traditionally that has meant someone who is in love with you, and puts you before anyone else.” Lucy sighed, snatching the lighter from Mina, and deftly lightly the cigarette for her. 

“Yeah, well love is important. So is freedom. And I know that I’ll never be satisfied with a traditional relationship.” Mina looked at her with a strange intensity, “I don’t think you would either. You have too much love to give.”

Lucy bashfully looked away as the butterflies returned to her stomach.

“So what kind of club are you dragging me to if it isn’t one of those creepy rich people cults?” Lucy asked in attempt to change subjects.

“Oh, I promise you, it is right up your alley. You’ll love it. Heath is actually pretty interested in you. He said specifically that you should come.” Mina smiled fondly as she passed the cigarette to Lucy.

“What? You’ve told him about me?” 

“Of course! You’re my like favorite person, loser.”

At long last they pulled up to the school, and Mina cursed softly under her breath at how far back she had to park for their tardiness. Lucy took a long deep breath in an attempt to compose herself for the day. It worked, for the most part.

“Come on, Lucy! In only seven hours you’ll be having the night of your life. Get hyped!” Mina grinned brightly at her. 

Despite the storm cloud that plagued her mood, Mina’s sunshine always peeked through. An evening escape to a mysterious party in Gotham sounded just like the distraction she needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope I didn't lose anyone with the time skip and the accompanying tone shift. The stuff with kid Lucy is cute, and there still might be more flashbacks. But the bulk of the story is going to be spent in her coming of age. And what teen, especially in the Batman universe, doesn't have plenty of angst? Thanks for reading!!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! This is my first fanfic, and is very much a work in progress. Support, warm words, and advice would be greatly appreicated. I would love to hear your opinion!


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